TOKYO — Japan's population has fallen for the fourth consecutive year while people aged 65 or older accounted for a record 26% of the total, government data showed on Friday.
A survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed the population fell by 215,000, or 0.17%, from a year earlier to 127,083,000 as of Oct 1, 2014. The population has now fallen by 1 million from its peak in 2008.
The pace of the population decline is in line with the demographic outlook by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research that predicts a drop in the population to as low as to 86.74 million in 2060, an estimate leaving Japan a global leader in population ageing.
But the government has set a target to maintain the population at 100 million in that year as a fall in the population will affect the country's future economic growth.
"With more people choosing life without marriage and children, the way of living has become more diverse and immigrants are few in Japan," an official of the institute said. "So, it would be difficult to change the situation rapidly."
Providing the latest proof of Japan's aging society, the survey showed people aged 65 or older increased by 1.1 million to a total of 33 million, more than double the number of those aged 14 or younger for the first time.
The elderly accounted for 26% of the total population, the highest level since comparable data became available in 1950. One-eighth of the total population is aged 75 or older.
The population fell in 40 of Japan's 47 prefectures, while Tokyo posted the sharpest gain of 0.68% and six others — Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi, Fukuoka and Okinawa — saw an increase.
The population in Tokyo and its neighbouring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa made up 28.3% of the country's total, underscoring the concentration of people in and around the capital.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is aiming to reduce the concentration of population in the Tokyo region by promoting more development of regional economies.
The survey was compiled by calculating the number of births and deaths as well as people who leave and enter the country, based on the government's official census taken every five years.
The figures include foreign nationals who stay in Japan for more than three months.
The population of Japanese nationals totalled 125,431,000, down 273,000, the survey showed.